Olivia Hunt's Hollywood life has come to a grinding halt. A hotshot producer accustomed to first-class amenities, Olivia has just been unceremoniously fired after her last movie tanked. Her boyfriend, Michael, has dumped her. And she's not the blonde she used to be: dark roots are coming in at an alarming rate. Her next project is a well-crafted suicide note.
Then she finds out what real trouble is. Olivia's beloved sister, Maddie, is seriously ill. Maddie is living the life Olivia ran like hell from: she's happily married to her high school sweetheart and still living in the small town where they grew up. Stunned and bewildered, Olivia catches the next plane back home.
Maddie's idealism and optimism have always driven Olivia crazy. Even now, when the odds aren't good, Maddie never doubts she'll beat them. But Olivia wonders, is hope just a way of kidding yourself? As if to answer that question, Maddie challenges Olivia to produce her dream film, the impossible-to-make Don Quixote. Olivia's life then becomes a tangle of movie sets, IV drips, and letters to Michael asking him what went wrong and if they might try again. When Maddie takes a turn for the worse, Olivia has to face the hardest choices life can offer. How can one person's heart so truly be in three places at once?
Imbued with all the love one sister can feel for another, and all the frustration too, The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters is heartbreaking and hilarious, somber and delightful, and full of wisdom, joy, and grace. It is a brilliantly written debut about the unlimited possibilities of love and how hope can grow in even the darkest places.
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"Lively-minded main character Olivia Hunt works in the movie industry. Her correspondence makes up this novel, during a time when she's struggling to produce her first movie, realizing how much she misses her ex-boyfriend, and dealing with her younger sister's recent leukemia diagnosis. Lots of pretty amusing stuff about Hollywood and about families. Lots of heavy-duty stuff about cancer and fear, strength in the face of death, pain, and the bonds that hold us together. I liked the writing but I wasn't sure if I liked the main character or the story until about 1/2 way through. The ending was the strongest part. Especially interesting to read at the end how much of this was based on the author's own experiences."
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Lisa (4 out of 5 stars)